Gasket.



5 n s "m" w (n e M n 1. a Z 6 "mm m 5 3 a. a g 9 m; OH 0 '1 1 MT F m m un Z 1/ I, a" Z um I 7 PATENTED NOV. 27, 1906 E. A. WILOOX.

GASKET.

APPLIOATION FILED NOV. 20.1905.

ELMER A. WILCOX, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

GASKET.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 27, 1906.

Application filed November 20,1905. Serial No. 288.158.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELMER A. WILcox, a citizen of the United States,residing in Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Gaskets, of which the followingis a specification.

It 1s now customary to pack the joints of pipes through which steam,water, air, oil, acids, alkalies, and other fluids and mixtures arepassed at varying temperatures with askets of various kinds, some beingof rub er, fibrous material impregnated or mixed with rubber, paper,asbestos, &c. These are all short lived, as they are subject todisintegration by the fluids in the pipes or are otherwise renderedineffective.

also been used in the manufacture of the gaskets, both in the flat form.and corrugated; but while copper is less liable to destruction than theother packings above mentioned, and readily conforms itself to theunevennesses of the flange-faces of the joint it is defectivenevertheless because of its lack of resiliency, so that it does notexpand and keep the joint tight when the latter opens by reason ofachange in temperature or from other cause. In other words, the coppergaskets when once compressed remain compressed and do not relax when thecompression relaxfis, so that the joint then commences to My inventionrelates to the construction of the copper gasket, and my endeavor in theinvention has been to overcome the difficulty arising from thenon-resilience of the metal. This I do by providing the gasket with aninterior chamber or passage to which the fluid in the pipes .has accessand the walls of which are flexible, so that they are adapted to yieldto the pressure from the fluid, and thus expand said walls against thefaces of the joint and so maintain the tightness of the oint.

The construction of the gasket is more particularly described below andalso illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is asectional View of apipe-joint rovided with my improved gasket. Fig. 2 1sa plan view of the gasket detached, and Figs. 3 and 4 are sectionsthereof on the lines 3 3 and 4 4, respectively, of Fig. 2.

In said drawings, 5 5 represent the pipesections united at the joint,each being provided with a flange 6 6,throu h which the bolts 7 7 arepassed. The gas et is shown Soft copper has at 8. It is made of softcopper or other metal spun into form, constructed, preferably, in twopieces. The flat faces of the gasket 9 and 10 are in one piece, themetal being doubled upon itself, and between these face portions llinsert the doubled-underedge 11 of the part 9 and a separate flat piece12, of a thickness corresponding to the part 11. The piece 12 and thedoubledunder edge 11 are separated from each other, as plainly shown atFigs. 3 and 4, leaving a chamber or passage 13, which is continuousthroughout the entire gasket, having but a single thickness of the metalupon either of the flat'sides. The doubled-under part 11 is cut away atintervals, as shown at 14 in Figs. 2 and 4, so as to connect the chamber13 with the interior fluidholding art of the pipe, thereby giving thefluids in the pipe access to said chamber. It will thus be seen that thegasket is made in three thicknesses or plies at each edge with itscentral portion or zone having only two thicknesses or plies. The faceportion 9 may be cut away at each of the openings 1a, as shown at 15, ifdesired; but this is entirely optional.

It will be seen from the construction described that the interposedportions 11 and 12 are adapted to keep the face portions 9 and 10 apart,notwithstanding the compression which is put upon the gasket, and thusto maintain the integrity of the chamber 13 and the entrances 14thereto, so that the chamber admits the fluid from the pipes, and thefluid being under pressure acts upon the walls 9 and 10 of the chamberand expands them outwardly against the flanges of the joint. In thismanner the joint is kept tight, notwithstanding the changes in the jointwhich occur with every change of term perature and sometimes from othercauses. The fact that the metal is not resilient becomes immaterial,because of the expansibility imparted to the faces 9 and 10 by thepressure of the fluid in the pipe.

While I have illustrated the invention as applied to a pipe-joint, itwill be understood that it may be used elsewhere.

By making the flat sides 9 and 10 in one piece I entirely prevent anyleakage occurring between these sides, as the escape of fluid fromwithin the joint is thus shut off. I

1. A soft metal expansible gasket adapted to be clamped between parallelflanges of gasket to the outside of th I IIO united pipe-sections, suchring having an internal chamber receiving the steam or other pressurefrom the pipe through a radial opening or openings extending from saidchamber inward to the interior of the pipe.

2. A soft'metal eXpansible gasket adapted to be clamped between parallelright-angled flanges of united pipe-sections, such ring havinglaninternal chamber receiving the steam or ot 'er pressure from the pipethrough a radial opening or openings extending from said chamber inwardto the interior of the pipe.

3. A soft metal eXpansible gasket adapted to" be clamped betweenparallel flanges of united pipe-sections, .such ring having an internalchamberformed by giving the gasket three thicknesses of metal around itsinner and its outer edges and only two thicknesses between such edges,such chamber receiving'the steam or other fluid'under pressure through aradial opening or v openings communicating with the'interior of thepipe.

4. The expansible gasket for the unions of flanged pipe-sections andsimilar joints, formed of flat metal bent into rin form with the metaldoubled upon itself, t e edges of the metal being both at the inside ofthe ring and one of said edges being doubled under to prevent the flatsides of the ring from coming together when the ring is compressed.

5. The eXpansible gasket for the unions of flanged pipe-sections andsimilar joints, formed of a flat metal bent into ring form with themetal doubled upon itself, the edges of the metal beingboth at theinside of the ring, the ring being also provided between said edges withmeans for holding them apart so that they are notforced into contactwith each other by the pressure upon the gasket.

ELMER A. WILGOX.

Witnesses:

Enw. S. EVARTS,' WILLIAM A. GEIGER.

